Isolation & Fear (Damned of the 2/19th Book Seven)

Mercy

LOCATION GPS ERROR
TIME/DATE STAMP ERROR
MISSION ERROR

The room was warm, comfortable. It smelled of old sweat (TRACKING SYSTEM ERROR IN MPU B: a woman and a man, both in good health, although one was injured), old food (TRACKING SYSTEM ALERT! ERROR! BAD CRC NON-VERBOSE RETURN ONLY! garbage can, 2 eaten MRE's), alcohol (TRACKING ALERT! GURU MEDITATION ERROR: bottle in my hand, glass of mixed alcohol and cola carbonated drink with four ice cubes), and a few other minor smells my brain tried to ID as typical.

It was a barracks room. Large main room. One bunk bed, one single bed, fridge in corner next to double window which was over a steam/hot water powered generator which was putting out heat. Two dressers, next to each other, against the wall opposite of the entryway. One desk. Shelves next to it. Both loaded with books and games. Short hallway with wall lockers. Door to outside of the room.

Runtime conclusion.

I was in the barracks. Based on the lingering chill, it was winter. I searched my brain.

>load "recentmemories.log",8,1
...loading...
...loading...
Done!
>brun vscan.bin "recentmemories.log" -n -l +v
...running...
...running...
...running...
Done!
No Viruses Detected
>brun crc-check.bin "recentmemories.log" -n +v
...running...
ERROR CRC EXPECTED 3166a261c82 returned YOUWILLALLDIEHERE
(R)etry, (A)bort, (F)ail, (I)gnore
>A
>brun recompiler.bin "recentmemories.log" +n +v
..running...
...running...
....running...
Done!
No Errors Reported
>brun recall.exe "recentmemories.log" +n +v

Memories flooded through my and I closed my eyes. Lots of scattered memories. Holding Cromwell up in the air while she fought to get free. The angles were wrong, I must have stood at least eight feet tall, my palms were the size of her face. I had binocular vision. Things were wrong, and reeked of apple blossoms and ice.

SEQUENCER ERROR! SURVIVAL/BATTLE CENTER CORE VOLTAGE FLUCTUATION

It took a minute for me to go through the memories completely.

A spike of pain shot through my brain as my short term memories synched up.

Room 275
Third Floor, Far Hammerhead Hall
2/19th Barracks
2/19th Special Weapons Group Area
Secure Area
Alfenwehr, Western Germany
04 December, 1987 (estimated)
1530 Hours (Estimated)

The room was warm and comfortable. A quick search of my short term memory showed me that Little-Bit had landed on my leg, breaking at across that old break.

Wait, it had been broken a second time. I had fallen down the stairs.

Running from Cromwell.

I had been alone for weeks, maybe months.

The lizard turned several keys on emergency systems and I felt dopamine and endorphines and adrenaline fire into my system.

The pain in my leg eased slightly.

I let my fingers trace over the crudely made brace as I stared at Little-Bit.

Slight bruising behind her ears and racoon eyes were indicative of brain trauma, but no pinkish fluid dribbling from her ears, none from her nose or tear ducts, so the swelling had stopped before rupturing any of her brain and skull works.

I took a drag off the cigarette, letting the nicotine wash through me to take the edge off the pain. She was completely limp, but according to my watch she had not suffered a seizure in over an hour. That also was a good sign. The fact that she was naked made it easy to spot any tremors in her muscle groups.